La Chana
“I was born to dance. I would lay awake all night long, repeating the rhythms in my head
until they became a part of me” -La Chana
In the 1960s and 1970s, self-taught Gypsy dancer, Antonia Santiago Amador, known as La Chana, was one of the biggest stars in the flamenco world, surprising audiences worldwide with her innovative style and use of rhythm. Peter Sellers, with whom she features in The Bobo (1967), invited her to Hollywood. Instead, at the peak of her career, she suddenly disappeared from the scene.
LA CHANA is a feature documentary that brings us under the skin and into the mind of La Chana as she returns to the stage to give a final seated performance after a break of two decades. Along the way, La Chana reveals the secret behind her disappearance: for 18 years she was the victim of domestic abuse at the hands of her first husband.
In this dramatic story about the process and power of creation, about aging, perseverance
and re-invention, La Chana crystallizes the inevitable clashes between her life’s extremes and contradictions; between the artist on stage and the woman behind the scenes.
Crew
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Directed by
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Color Grader
About the film
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TypeDocumentary
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International Premiere DateNovember 17, 2016, IDFA
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Length82 min.
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LanguageSpanish
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Original TitleLa Chana
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International TitleLa Chana
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Production Year2016
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Production CountriesIceland, United States, Spain
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IMDB
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Website
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Icelandic Film Centre GrantYes
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ColorYes
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Screening format and subtitlesDCP, English subtitles
Company Credits
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In Partnership With
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Co-Production Company
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Supported by
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International sales
Festivals
- 2018Budapest International Documentary Festival
- 2018Dock of the Bay Film Festival, San Sebastian
- 2017TRT Documentary Days
- 2017Cinédoc Tbilisi
- 2017Docs Against Gravity - Award: Chopin's Nose Award for Best Documentary.
- 2017Amsterdam Spanish Film Festival
- 2017Docs Barcelona
- 2017Crossing Europe
- 2017Sheffield Doc/Fest
- 2017AFI Docs
- 2017In-Edit Brasil
- 2017Maine International Film Festival
- 2017Best of Hot Docs Vancouver
- 2017Ciclo de Flamenco y Cine Sevilla
- 2017Curacao Rotterdam International Film Festival
- 2017New Zealand International Film Festival
- 2017Fünf Seen Film Festival
- 2017Cerdanya Film Festival - Award: Special Mention.
- 2017See the Sound
- 2017DocAviv
- 2017Flamenco Biennale, Netherlands
- 2017DocPoint Helsinki
- 2017DocPoint Tallinn
- 2017Tempo Documentary Film Festival
- 2017Thessaloniki Documentary Festival
- 2017Assen International Film Festival
- 2017Women & Film
- 2017Vera Film Festival
- 2017Málaga Film Festival
- 2017Hot Docs, Toronto
- 2017Dok.Fest Munich
- 2017Ambulante
- 2017Europe on Screen
- 2017Le Voci dell’Inchiesta - Award: Audience Award.
- 2017Beldocs
- 2016IDFA - Award: Audience Award.
- 2016DOK Leipzig
